System for automatic wireless utilization of cellular telephone devices

ABSTRACT

A system and method for notifying emergency responders, family, and other contact parties of an urgent vehicle condition such as a breakdown or crash, by using a short-range wireless communicator mounted on the vehicle to employ a peer-to-peer communications capability to find and co-opt a nearby long-range communication device, such as a Bluetooth enabled phone, which is not mounted on the vehicle, such as a passer&#39;s-by telephone. The invention obtains authorization from the co-opted device to use it as a forwarding proxy, and transmits a notification message to one or more parties, such as emergency dispatchers, family members, etc., via the short-range link to the co-opted device, which then transmits the message to the recipient via the long-range network, such as via a telephone network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to technologies for utilization of communicationcapabilities on an on-demand basis by co-opting telecommunicationsdevices which are within a short-range wireless range of a systemrequiring longer-range communications.

2. Background of the Invention

Air bags in vehicles are deployed by impact sensors located in thevehicle's crush zones. In accidents where emergency medical response(“EMS”) is required, the driver and passengers may be unconscious andunable to solicit help. One or more of those involved in an accident mayhave a cell phone, but unconsciousness or mobile impairment may preventits use to contact EMS, loved ones, insurance agency, etc.

When car sensors detect sufficient impact to trigger air bags, theaccident should be assumed to be critical—every second may count, withlives at stake. There are several attempts on the market to address thisproblem, all of which have shortcomings.

For example, the European “E-Merge” research project investigatednotifying emergency services when a vehicle is involved in a crash, andsending accident data picked up from sensors. It uses a device that isattached to the underside of he dashboard, and is activated by thesensor that triggers an air bag in a crash. This system uses an on-boardcellular phone device having an extended range, similar to that ofGeneral Motor's OnStar [TM] system. These type of technologies are onlyhelpful, of course, for those vehicles which are equipped with theon-board cellular equipment. Additionally, even equipped vehicles mayfail to make an emergency notification call if the crash causes damageto the on-board cellular equipment itself.

For vehicle's equipped with handsfree on-board cellular telephones,these may be of limited use following a crash if one or more user's areable to speak, and if the equipment is still functional.

Consequently, there is a need in the art for a system and method whichprovides a more reliable means of communication and notification ofemergency services following a vehicle crash. This system should be morerobust, and less prone to damage during the crash, and should notrequire a conscious user to activate it or to send information to EMS.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a vehicle-mounted system and method toautomatically detect a vehicle crash or failure using sensors presentlyavailable on the vehicle. The vehicle-borne system utilizes ashort-range communications means, such as Bluetooth or Infra-red DataArrangement (“lrDA”), to determine if any suitable communicationsdevices having long-range communications capabilities are within rangeof the short-range communications signal. If so, a device is selectedand co-opted, causing the device to establish communications with EMSvia the long-range signal, and to transmit important informationcollected by the vehicle-mounted system, without intervention of avehicle occupant.

For example, as shown (1) in FIG. 1, following a crash of a firstvehicle (2), the vehicle-mounted system (3) may detect the crash usingvarious known sensors, and then searches and detects a Bluetooth-enabledwireless telephone within range of the vehicle, which may in actualitybe a telephone worn by a vehicle occupant, or may even be a telephone inthe possession of a passer-by (9) in a nearby vehicle (8), or may be atelephone (6) in the possession of an on-looker (5).

The invention then co-opts the telephone which is detected withinshort-range communications, and uses that local link (4, 7) to make along-range communications (10, 11) to a regional cellular tower, Wi-Fiaccess point, etc. (12). From there, the connection is completed througha appropriate network (13), such as a cellular network and/or the publicswitched telephone network (“PSTN”), a broader data network such as avirtual private network (“VPN”) or the Internet, etc. (13). Finally, thecommunications, preferably including location and crash information, isreceived by the appropriate EMS dispatch or data center (14).

In this way, the occupants of the vehicle, who may be injured orunconscious, are not required in the process to make the emergencynotification. Additionally, vehicle-mounted communications equipmentneed only complete a short-range connection, such as a Bluetooth orWi-Fi connection, thereby increasing the chance of finding and using along-range communicator in the vicinity which is less likely to bedamaged or compromised.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the invention isconfigured by a user or service provider with a set of rules andcommunications targets based upon sensor information in the vehicle,time of day, location of the vehicle, etc. This customization aspectallows a user to automatically notify chosen parties under specifiedconditions. For example, if a fuel gauge is reading dangerously low, andtime of day is late at night, a list of local relatives may be searched,and the closest relative can automatically be notified.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description when taken in conjunction with theresented herein provide a complete disclosure of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system view of the present invention.

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b show a generalized computing platform architecture,and a generalized organization of software and firmware of such acomputing platform architecture.

FIG. 3 provides a functional view of the enhanced electronic controlmodule for a vehicle integrated with the rest of the vehicle'ssubsystems.

FIG. 4 details a top-level logical process according to the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a logical process for determining if a device isauthorized to co-opt for long-range communications.

FIG. 6 sets forth a logical process for completing a notification.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention integrates functionality of vehicle sensors andcell phones to provide a device that enables direct communicationbetween vehicle sensor(s) and a non-vehicle-mounted cell phone via ashort-range network protocol, including functionality on the co-optedcell phone that allows a user to manage the automatic dialing to notifyinterested parties in real-time.

In any of a number of available embodiments, the present inventionprovides one or more of the following features or advantages over thecurrently available technology:

-   -   (a) subsequent to an accident, one or more cell phone in or near        the vehicle are co-opted to automatically dial and notify        interested parties;    -   and    -   (b) a user can configure which parties are contacted under which        conditions directly from an in-range cell phone, or via service        provider    -   (c) interested parties can be divided into personal or others,        and number of auto dial numbers are configurable, such as:        -   (i) Personal: Parents, close friends, etc.;        -   (ii) Emergency: 9-1-1, 3-1-1, hospital's EMS service; and        -   (iii) Others: Insurance, towing services;    -   (d) data from sensor device(s), the vehicle itself, or passenger        information is passed along in the cell phone notification        message as data, text or voice messages;    -   (e) persons on the emergency notification list receive a special        signal as a quick indicator of urgency from someone in a severe        accident or critical situation, which can include a special        light, special pattern of blinking, text message, alert tone,        etc.;    -   (f) based on the sensor information, the condition and location        of the vehicle can also be sent to interested parties;    -   (g) if the driver is conscious, pushing an emergency code will        disable the notification, or will send a dismissal message to        interested parties (9-1-1, wrecker service, etc.);    -   (h) long-range communications can be accomplished by co-opting a        cell phone, or alternatively co-opting other devices such as a        personal digital assistant (“PDA”), portable computer, using        pager services, email services, or instant messenger services;        and    -   (i) the system may be employed to reduce fraud and investigation        expenses by insurance companies by helping confirm each        accident, recording severity of impact, and directly notifying        insurance agents and/or adjusters.

Preferably,-the functionality of the co-opted cell phone is provided asa downloadable feature to the cell phone, such as a Palm ComputingPalmOS[TM]-compatible program, Microsoft Windows CE [TM]-compatibleprogram, or proprietary program.

With respect to the vehicle-mounted equipment, the invention ispreferably realized in whole or part as software-based logicalprocesses, circuitry, or both, in conjunction with and cooperation withan microprocessor-based vehicle-mounted electronic control module(“ECM”), such as the system (30) shown in FIG. 3.

In this system, an embedded microprocessor (31), such as a RISCprocessor, is provided with storage media (32), such as random accessmemory or non-volatile memory, in which computer-executable instructionsor “software” are stored that implement the logical processes of theinvention. Alternatively, the ECM may be equipped with the logicaloperations of the invention embodied as circuitry, such as anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (“ASIC”), or a programmablelogic device.

The embedded processor (31) is also interfaced to a short-range (35)communicator (33) with transmission antenna or optical transceiver (34),such as a Bluetooth communicator, or IrDA communicator. Suchcommunicator devices are well known in the art, and are readilyavailable from integrated circuit manufacturers suitable for inclusionin such embedded control designs.

The ECM is also interfaced preferably to a bus suitable forcommunications with the vehicle's user interface (38) (e.g. dashboardindicators, buttons, knobs, annunciators, etc.), the vehicle's sensors(37) (e.g. engine trouble sensors, fuel gauge, impact sensors, tirepressure sensors, lamp burn-out indicators, etc.), vehicle controls (39)(e.g. user-operable levers and buttons, transmission selector, etc.),and optionally a location determination system (300) (e.g. a GlobalPositioning System, etc.), such as a Controller Area Network bus(“CANbus”), which is commonly employed in many vehicles. Alternatively,other suitable buses, including but not limited to Universal Serial Bus(“USB”), Ethernet, or proprietary buses may be employed for thispurpose. Some user interface, controls, and sensors may be directlywired or linked to the ECM, as well.

We now turn our discussion to the logical or logical processes of theinvention by disclosing an overall logical process for achievingautomatic notification. First, upon determination (41) of an accident orother condition of sufficient severity by specialized sensors in thecar, the situation notification system (“SNS”) is initiated. This systembroadcasts (42) a message to all short-range communications devices inthe area, such as all Bluetooth-enabled cell phones within the range ofthe short-range communications link.

The message is preferably a “ping” type of request, and its purpose isto find what longer-range communicators are in the area, if any, andwhich device owners would enable or have enabled the phones to be usedin such a situation notification procedure. The “ping” requestpreferably contains pertinent situation or accident data, such as theseverity of the crash, the call notification numbers, the location,type, model, of the vehicle, etc.

In a realization of the invention utilizing Bluetooth-enabled cellphones, there are at least two ways a cell phone owner can indicate thatthe phone can be used for emergency calls:

-   -   (1) As a configurable preference in the software application        that sets up the call notification list; or    -   (2) As a response to a authorization request for such purposes        by the SNS.

We prefer to use a broadcast “ping” request so that anyBluetooth-enabled cell phones that are in proximity can be used, notlimited only to the driver's cell phone, such that other cell phones inthe are may be used (e.g. from a backseat occupant, a passer-by, anon-looker, etc.).

The SNS then interacts with the first Bluetooth-enabled cellphone thatresponds (43) to the ping request. In the event that two or moreresponses are received, one cell phone will be chosen. Such selectionmay be arbitrary, such as a random selection, or may be based upon alogical analysis using any number of potentially available data andconditions. For example, a GSM cell phone may be the highest preferredco-opted device, followed in order of less desirability of a dual-modephone, a PCS-only (e.g. digital only) phone, a two-way pager, a PDA withWi-Fi connectivity, and a laptop computer with Wi-Fi connectivity. Otherfactors, if known, such as proximity of each responding device to therequesting device, using GPS or signal strength, for example, may alsoenter into a logical decision to select a device for co-opting.

The job of the SNS at this point is to determine (44) if the selectedcell phone can be used in the connection, message, or call, to completethe notification procedure. If (45) it is authorized to do this, it willco-opt (46) the cell phone; otherwise, it will broadcast (42) anotherping request (or alternatively select another previously-respondeddevice), and so on until it finds an authorized cell phone to use.

Turning to FIG. 5, more details of a logical process (45) to determineif a particular device is authorized is shown. Preferably, the softwareapplication on the cell phone receiving (400) the ping request tracksthe serial number or other unique identifier of the SNS that sent it sothat the subsequent message(s) can ignored (408), in the event of arebroadcast from the same SNS (401). This allows another cell phone inthe area to be contacted, that maybe farther away than the decliningcell phone.

According to another aspect of the invention, in the response to theping request, the cell phones that are pre-configured for emergency calluse will indicate (402, 403, 406) this setting in the response message,which the SNS will parse to see if any such setting is activated. If itis present in the response message, the SNS will use the cell phone;otherwise, it preferably sends (404) a separate message to requestauthorization. This may implemented as a regular call, pager message,instant message, or email, where the device owner only has to answer asimple “yes” or “no” to the request in order to temporarily authorizeco-opting his device for the notification function (405, 406). Otherwise(405), a message is returned to the SNS indicating that the device isnot authorized to be used for the notification purpose (407). The SNSwill decide what to do next depending on the response, as described inthe foregoing paragraphs.

Having found an available device and having received authorization touse it for emergency calls, the SNS then starts the call notificationprocedure. A logical process (46) according to the present invention tocomplete a notification is shown in FIG. 6. Because the ping requestcontained the call notification list information (62), all that'srequired now is to tell the authorized device (“AD”) to place the calls,send the pages, transmit emails, etc. (61). The portion of the inventionresiding in the cell phone or other long-range communications-enableddevice then makes the calls, messages, etc., until each one is received(63), preferably avoiding repeating any calls or messages which aresuccessfully completed. When one or more of the notifications arecomplete, the AD sends a message to the SNS to acknowledge completion ofthe task (65), thereby ending the process for the AD.

The SNS continues to wait for the acknowledgment (47) from theAuthorized Device, and if it is not received preferably within aspecified period of time, the SNS preferably attempts to deliver thenotification(s) through one or more additional long-range enableddevices within short-range communications of the SNS, as described inthe foregoing paragraphs. The reason for this retry through anotherdevice is to handle the case where the authorization to use a first cellphone has been established, but the message to start the callnotification procedure was lost because of some communication failure,such as the driver moving out of the range of Bluetooth, etc. Therefore,if the SNS does not receive an acknowledgment message within a certainwindow, it assumes the connection has died and rebroadcasts the pingrequest, restarting the process.

In order to eliminate duplicate emergency call notifications beingplaced, the AD preferably does not make the call directly, but ratherforwards the message to a hotline established by the service provider.This hotline keeps track of the call notifications already made so thatduplicate ones are not sent. For example, the serial number or anotherunique identifier of the SNS can be used as an accident identificationnumber to correlate the call notifications.

The reason this hotline is preferred in the embodiment is to handle thecase where an AD may have succeeded in making two of the three callnotifications required, but then the connection is lost because the AD'sbattery died, for example. When the SNS rebroadcasts the ping message,and eventually finds another AD to use, the hotline would have knownthat it sent two notifications already, so it would just need to sendthe third.

Note that while an AD is forwarding the call notification list to thehotline, a flag is preferably set in the controlling softwareapplication, indicating that it's already servicing an emergencyrequest. If it receives a ping request from a SNS in another accidentlocated nearby, it preferably returns this flag in the response messagesaying that it is currently busy and unable to service that request.

Suitable Computing Platform

The invention is preferably realized as a feature or addition to thesoftware already found present on well-known computing platforms such asembedded microcontrollers, but potentially on personal computers, laptopcomputers, tablet computers, notebook computers, personal digitalassistants (“PDA”), web-enabled wireless telephones, and other types ofpersonal information management (“PIM”) devices, as well.

Therefore, it is useful to review a generalized architecture of acomputing platform which may span the range of implementation, from ahigh-end web or enterprise server platform, to a personal computer, to aportable PDA or web-enabled wireless phone.

Turning to FIG. 2 a, a generalized architecture is presented including acentrla processing unit (21) (“CPU”), which is typically comprised of amicroprocessor (22) associated with random access memory (“RAM”) (24)and read-only memory (“ROM”) (25). Often, the CPU (21) is also providedwith cache memory (23) and programmable FlashROM (26). The interface(27) between the microprocessor (22) and the various types of CPU memoryis often referred to as a “local bus”, but also may be a more generic orindustry standard bus.

Many computing platforms are also provided with one or more storagedrives (29), such as a hard-disk drives (“HDD”), floppy disk drives,compact disc drives (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, etc.), and proprietarydisk and tape drives (e.g., Iomcga Zip [TM] and Jaz [TMj], AddonicsSuperDisk [TM], etc.). Additionally, some storage drives may beaccessible over a computer network.

Many computing platforms are provided with one or more communicationinterfaces (210), according to the function intended of the computingplatform. For example, a personal computer is often provided with a highspeed serial port (RS-232, RS422, etc.), an enhanced parallel port(“EPP”), and one or more universal serial bus (“USB”) ports. Thecomputing platform may also be provided with a local area network(“LAN”) interface, such as an Ethernet card, and other high-speedinterfaces such as the High Performance Serial Bus IEEE-1394.

Computing platforms such as wireless telephones and wireless networkedPDA's may also be provided with a radio frequency (“RF”) interface withantenna, as well. In some cases, the computing platform may be providedwith an infrared data arrangement (“IrDA”) interface, too.

Computing platforms are often equipped with one or more internalexpansion slots (211), such as Industry Standard Architecture (“ISA”),Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (“EISA”), Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (“PCI”), or proprietary interface slots for the addition ofother hardware, such as sound cards, memory boards, and graphicsaccelerators.

Additionally, many units, such as laptop computers and PDA'S, areprovided with one or more external expansion slots (212) allowing theuser the ability to easily install and remove hardware expansiondevices, such as PCMCIA cards, SmartMedia cards, and various proprietarymodules such as removable hard drives, CD drives, and floppy drives.

Often, the storage drives (29), communication interfaces (210), internalexpansion slots (211) and external expansion slots (212) areinterconnected with the CPU (21) via a standard or industry open busarchitecture (28), such as ISA, EISA, or PCI. In many cases, the bus(28) may be of a proprietary design.

A computing platform is usually provided with one or more user inputdevices, such as a keyboard or a keypad (216), and mouse or pointerdevice (217), and/or a touch-screen display (218). In the case of apersonal computer, a full size keyboard is often provided along with amouse or pointer device, such as a track ball or TrackPoint [TM]. In thecase of a web-enabled wireless telephone, a simple keypad may beprovided with one or more function-specific keys. In the case of a PDA,a touch-screen (218) is usually provided, often with handwritingrecognition capabilities.

Additionally, a microphone (219), such as the microphone of aweb-enabled wireless telephone or the microphone of a personal computer,is supplied with the computing platform. This microphone may be used forsimply reporting audio and voice signals, and it may also be used forentering user choices, such as voice navigation of web sites orauto-dialing telephone numbers, using voice recognition capabilities.

Many computing platforms are also equipped with a camera device (2100),such as a still digital camera or full motion video digital camera.

One or more user output devices, such as a display (213), are alsoprovided with most computing platforms. The display (213) may take manyforms, including a Cathode Ray Tube (“CRT”), a Thin Flat Transistor(“TFT”) array, or a simple set of light emitting diodes (“LED”) orliquid crystal display (“LCD”) indicators.

One or more speakers (214) and/or annunciators (215) are oftenassociated with computing platforms, too. The speakers (214) may be usedto reproduce audio and music, such as the speaker of a wirelesstelephone or the speakers of a personal computer. Annunciators (215) maytake the form of simple beep emitters or buzzers, commonly found oncertain devices such as PDAs and PIMs.

These user input and output devices may be directly interconnected (28′,28″) to the CPU (21) via a proprietary bus structure and/or interfaces,or they may be inerconnected through one or more industry open busessuch as ISA, EISA, PCI, etc.

The computing platform is also provided with one or more software andfirmware (2101) programs to implement the desired functionality of thecomputing plaforms.

Turning to now FIG. 2 b, more detail is given of a generalizedorganization of software and firmware (2101) on this range of computingplatforms. One or more operating system (“OS”) native applicationprograms (223) may be provided on the computing platform, such as wordprocessors, spreadsheets, contact management utilities, address book,calendar, email client, presentation, financial and bookkeepingprograms.

Additionally, one or more “portable” or device-independent programs(224) may be provided, which must be interpreted by an OS-nativeplatform-specific interpreter (225), such as Java [TM] scripts andprograms.

Often, computing platforms are also provided with a form of web browseror micro-browser (226), which may also include one or more extensions tothe browser such as browser plug-ins (227).

The computing device is often provided with an operating system (220),such as Microsoft Windows [TM], UNIX, IBM OS/2 [TM], IBM AIX [TM], opensource LINUX, Apple's MAC OS [TM], or other platform specific operatingsystems. Smaller devices such as PDA's and wireless telephones may beequipped with other forms of operating systems such as real-timeoperating systems (“RTOS”) or Palm Computing's PalmOS [TM].

A set of basic input and output functions (“BIOS”) and hardware devicedrivers (221) are often provided to allow the operating system (220) andprograms to interface to and control the specific hardware functionsprovided with the computing platform.

Additionally, one or more embedded firmware programs (222) are commonlyprovided with many computing platforms, which are executed by onboard or“embedded” microprocessors as part of the peripheral device, such as amicro controller or a hard drive, a communication processor, networkinterface card, or sound or graphics card.

As such, FIGS. 2 a and 2 b describe in a general sense the varioushardware components, software and firmware programs of a wide variety ofcomputing platforms, including but not limited to personal computers,PDAs, PIMs, web-enabled telephones, and other appliances such as WebTV[TM] units. As such, we now turn our attention to disclosure of thepresent invention relative to the processes and methods preferablyimplemented as software and firmware on such a computing platform. Itwill be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that thefollowing methods and processes may be alternatively realized ashardware functions, in part or in whole, without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention.

The methods and processes of the invention and it's associatedcomponents may be realized as a standalone executable program, script,Java Bean, application program, plug-in, etc., which accesses andmodifies certain system files and resources as described in more detailin the following paragraphs, but may well be integrated into existingsoftware such as vehicle control firmware. While the foregoing exampleshave focused on a realization of the invention using Bluetooth-enabledcell phones and telephone calls, it will be recognized by those skilledin the art that other devices which are enabled for short-range andlong-range communications, and other protocols, can be used foralternate embodiments of the invention without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention.

For example, the co-opted device can be short-range linked using othershort-range technologies, such as IrDA or Wi-Fi. The co-opted devicecould be a PIM, PDA, laptop computer, two-way pager, or even anothervehicle's vehicle-mounted cell phone. The long-range communicationtechnology could alernatively be email, instant messages, or radio, forexample.

As these alternative embodiment details are not exhaustive of thealternative embodiments, the scope of the present invention should bedetermined by the following claims.

1. A system comprising: a controller with one or more situation triggerinputs and a short-range wireless communicator, said controller andshort-range communicator being mounted on a vehicle, said short-rangecommunicator having a peer-to-peer communications capability requiringno network connectivity; a first long-range communication device havinga long-range communication capability for delivering a notification to aspecified party via a wireless network, said device being physicallydetached from said vehicle, and being found by said controller to bewithin range of said peer-to-peer communications capabilitycontemporaneously with receipt of one or more situation triggers; anauthorization communication exchange between said communicator and saiddevice to establish authorization for said device to be commanded bysaid controller to deliver a notification message via said network; anda notification message traversing from said controller, through saidcommunicator, over said peer-to-peer communications, through saiddevice, and over said network to a designated recipient.
 2. The systemas set forth in claim 1 further comprising an acknowledgment messagesent from said device to said controller responsive to successfuldelivery of said notification message.
 3. The system as set forth inclaim 1 further comprising a device selector cooperative with saidcontroller for selection of one of multiple long-range communicationdevices within range of said peer-to-peer communicationscontemporaneously.
 4. The system as set forth in claim 3 wherein saidselector comprises a selection factor selected from the group of asignal strength measurer, a location identifier, and a technologyidentifier.
 5. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising anotification message handling service configured to receive saidnotification message from said device, and to forward said notificationmessage to said recipient if no related notification messages have beenpreviously delivered to said recipient.
 6. The system as set forth inclaim 1 further comprising a subsequent authorization communicationexchange between said communicator and a second long-range communicationdevice to establish authorization for said second device to be commandedby said controller to deliver a notification message via said networkresponsive to failure to receive authorization from said first device.7. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said vehicle-mountedshort-range communicator comprises a vehicle-mounted Bluetoothtransceiver, wherein said short-range peer-to-peer communicationscomprises a Bluetooth communications link, and wherein said long-rangecommunications device comprises a Bluetooth-enabled device.
 8. Thesystem as set forth in claim 7 wherein said device comprises a cellulartelephone.
 9. The system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said devicecomprises a portable computer.
 10. The system as set forth in claim 7wherein said device comprises a two-way pager.
 11. The system as setforth in claim 7 wherein said device comprises a portable digitalassistant device.
 12. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidvehicle-mounted short-range communicator comprises a vehicle-mountedInfra-red Data Arrangement transceiver, wherein said short-rangepeer-to-peer communications comprises an Infra-red Data Arrangementlink, and wherein said long-range communications device comprises aInfra-red Data Arrangement-enabled device.
 13. The system as set forthin claim 12 wherein said device comprises a cellular telephone.
 14. Thesystem as set forth in claim 12 wherein said device comprises.a portablecomputer.
 15. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein said devicecomprises a two-way pager.
 16. The system as set forth in claim 12wherein said device comprises a portable digital assistant device.
 17. Amethod comprising the steps of: providing a controller and a short-rangewireless communicator mounted on a vehicle, said short-rangecommunicator having a peer-to-peer communications capability requiringno network connectivity; receiving by a controller one or more situationtrigger inputs; finding within range of said peer-to-peer communicationscapability contemporaneously with receipt of said situation triggerinput a first long-range communication device having a long-rangecommunication capability for delivering a notification to a specifiedparty via a wireless network, said device being physically detached fromsaid vehicle; exchanging an authorization communication between saidcommunicator and said device to establish authorization for said deviceto be commanded by said controller to deliver a notification message viasaid network; and sending a notification message from said controller,through said communicator, over said peer-to-peer communications,through said device, and over said network to a designated recipient.18. The method as set forth in claim 17 further comprising sending anacknowledgment message from said device to said controller responsive tosuccessful delivery of said notification message.
 19. The method as setforth in claim 17 further comprising selecting one of multiplelong-range communication devices found within range of said peer-to-peercommunications contemporaneously.
 20. A computer-readable mediumcomprising: at least one computer-readable medium selected from thegroup of a memory device, a computer disk, and a modulatedcomputer-receivable signal; a first computer program encoded in saidcomputer-readable medium for execution by a controller and a short-rangewireless communicator mounted on a vehicle, said short-rangecommunicator having a peer-to-peer communications capability requiringno network connectivity, causing said controller to: (a)contemporaneously responsive to receipt of one or more vehicle situationtrigger inputs, find within range of said peer-to-peer communicationscapability a long-range communication device having a long-rangecommunication capability for delivering a notification to a specifiedparty via a wireless network, said device being physically detached fromsaid vehicle; (b) to exchange an authorization communication betweensaid communicator and said device establishing authorization for saiddevice to be commanded by said controller to deliver a notificationmessage via said network; and (c) to send a notification message fromsaid controller, through said communicator, over said peer-to-peercommunications, through said device, and over said network to adesignated recipient; and a second computer program product encoded insaid computer-readable medium for execution by said device tocooperatively deliver said notification message from said controller.